Statistics for Process Control Engineers: A Practical Approach

The first statistics guide focussing on practical application to process control design and maintenance

Statistics for Process Control Engineers is the only guide to statistics written by and for process control professionals. It takes a wholly practical approach to the subject. Statistics are applied throughout the life of a process control scheme from assessing its economic benefit, designing inferential properties, identifying dynamic models, monitoring performance and diagnosing faults. This book addresses all of these areas and more.

The book begins with an overview of various statistical applications in the field of process control, followed by discussions of data characteristics, probability functions, data presentation, sample size, significance testing and commonly used mathematical functions. It then shows how to select and fit a distribution to data, before moving on to the application of regression analysis and data reconciliation. The book is extensively illustrated throughout with line drawings, tables and equations, and features numerous worked examples. In addition, two appendices include the data used in the examples and an exhaustive catalogue of statistical distributions. The data and a simple–to–use software tool are available for download. The reader can thus reproduce all of the examples and then extend the same statistical techniques to real problems.

Takes a back–to–basics approach with a focus on techniques that have immediate, practical, problem–solving applications for practicing engineers, as well as engineering students Shows how to avoid the many common errors made by the industry in applying statistics to process control Describes not only the well–known statistical distributions but also demonstrates the advantages of applying the large number that are less well–known Inspires engineers to identify new applications of statistical techniques to the design and support of control schemes Provides a deeper understanding of services and products which control engineers are often tasked with assessing

This book is a valuable professional resource for engineers working in the global process industry and engineering companies, as well as students of engineering. It will be of great interest to those in the oil and gas, chemical, pulp and paper, water purification, pharmaceuticals and power generation industries, as well as for design engineers, instrument engineers and process technical support. 

Preface

About the author

Part 1: The Basics 18

1 Introduction 19

2 Application to Process Control 20

3 Process Examples 25

4 Characteristics of Data 30

5 Probability Density Function 53

6 Presenting the Data 75

7 Sample Size 85

8 Significance Testing 91

9 Fitting a Distribution 101

10 Distribution of Dependent Variables 112

11 Commonly Used Functions 117

12 Selected Distributions 128

13 Extreme Value Analysis 155

14 Hazard Function 159

15 CUSUM 162

16 Regression Analysis 165

17 Autocorrelation 188

18 Data Reconciliation 193

19 Fourier Transform 197

Part 2: Catalogue of Distributions 202

20 Normal Distribution 203

21 Burr Distribution 218

22 Logistic Distribution 226

23 Pareto Distribution 237

24 Stoppa Distribution 245

25 Beta Distribution 247

26 Johnson Distribution 258

27 Pearson Distribution 261

28 Exponential Distribution 274

29 Weibull Distribution 282

30 Chi Distribution 284

31 Gamma Distribution 292

32 Symmetrical Distributions 297

33 Asymmetrical Distributions 307

34 Amoroso Distribution 328

35 Binomial Distribution 330

36 Other Discrete Distributions 343

Appendix I Data Used in Examples 354

Appendix II       Summary of Distributions 363

References 383

Index

Myke King is Director of Whitehouse Consulting which provides process control consulting and training services. For the past 40 years he has been running courses for industry covering all aspects of process control, training over 2,000 students. He also lectures at several universities. He is author of the popular Process Control: A Practical Approach, now in its second edition (Wiley, 2016).